I Married A Car Guy: My Journey Toward Car Literacy

Hi, I'm Debbie Nol, and I married a car guy. My 14 years of working at Arie Nol Auto Center has been an incredible journey, building amazing relationships with customers and learning so much from our experienced technicians.

Now I'm launching a blog to share what I've learned about cars and some of my most memorable customer stories. Hopefully you will find my blog both helpful and entertaining!

Monthly Archives: October 2016

There is a lot of chatter about self-driving or, autonomous cars. There are articles in trade magazines talking about their possible capabilities and what being a passenger in an autonomous car may look like. There is a lot of discussion about the improved safety on the road. On a long trip where being tired could cause you to doze off and potentially cause an accident, it makes sense. If you have elderly parents and would feel better with them not driving, that also makes sense. The safety features of the autonomous vehicle are understandable. From what I’ve read, they are able to teach the vehicle to essentially make decisions. It can discern the difference between a deer and a person in the road. The vehicle also can ignore screaming children, a ringing cell phone and a spilled drink. These are all causes of accidents that most people struggle to ignore while driving. Most people in Michigan know when a deer leaps into the road not to swerve. It’s hard to not try to ... read more

One of the biggest compliments we can get as a business is about how we made someone feel when they were in our facility. We pride ourselves on the repairs and maintenance that we perform. We appreciate that we can partner with our customers to keep their mode of transportation running, so they can accomplish their day-to- day obligations. Our business is repairing vehicles. Our goal is to do that well but at the same time, offer customer service we can be proud of. Having been in business for forty years has given us a deep base of customers, some who are third generation drivers just starting to use our services. We received an email last week from a long time customer who mountain bikes. He and Jeff have had many conversations about their shared interests. He had taken a bad tumble on his bike and emailed us to let us know we wouldn’t see him for a bit. He shared what had happened and knew Jeff would be able to relate to a crash on his bike, just not to the l ... read more

Drive belts are an integral part of your vehicle’s operating system as they, in conjunction with your engine, power your accessories. I’d like to share a little about the importance of maintaining your drive belts. I’m going to keep it simple and not throw around a bunch of technical words. Essentially, pulleys are attached to the engine, belts run through the pulleys which in turn power the accessory. So the belts are powered by the engine and power the accessories. If you are thinking purses, belts and jewelry, those are not the type of accessories I’m talking about. I’m talking about your water pump, charging system, air conditioning compressor, etc. There are usually several drive belts in each vehicle. When a belt breaks, it can cause damage to the surrounding parts. Replacing pulleys or other parts damaged by a belt breaking is costlier than replacing your car’s drive belt during normal routine maintenance. Technicians know how important your drive belts a ... read more

Running a small business requires you to wear so many hats and learn something new every day. One of the biggest challenges is marketing. Marketing dollars need to work to bring in business. Fourteen years ago our marketing consisted of deciding how big our telephone book ad was going to be. There are so many different opportunities now to get your business name out into the public. Internet ads, promotions, radio, TV, direct mail, email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. Some forms cost a lot, some are more inexpensive and some, thankfully, are free. Artprize in Grand Rapids is like a gift to the local small business is some respects. So much more foot traffic and out of town visitors to admire our great city and what it has to offer. They eat, sleep, and shop here, giving the downtown area a huge boost to most of the businesses. Artprize advertises the event and we all benefit. We also get to enjoy amazing art and artists in our own backyard. We are th ... read more